Reflecting on Our First 28 Years
Elizabeth: When we married, we were both working and I moved in to the apartment where Garry lived. We went to the same church already.
We expected to always work for the same companies, live in the same area, attend the same church--at least until we retired.
But God had other plans.
Garry: At that time I had just returned to commuting on the train from the western suburbs where we lived to downtown Chicago to my relocated office. Elizabeth caught a ride with co-workers to her office in the suburbs.
Elizabeth: The day before our fourth wedding anniversary (March 24, 1993) Garry came home and asked me to sit down. So I did.
Garry: That day my boss told me that a major project I had been involved in had been cancelled and that I would be laid off before the end of the year.
Elizabeth: That turn of events was a real surprise. I had assumptions regarding Garry's job which had just proved false. And we could not make it for long on just my income. The second shock that year was the unexpected death of my dad less than a month after Garry cleared out his desk at his office.
Garry: Providentially my company paid me four months of severance money, beginning in September 1993. And they also had me do several free-lance projects for them. All that helped bridge the income gap for us.
Elizabeth: The day before our fifth wedding anniversary (March 24, 1994) we moved in with a family from the church we were attending. They had recently finished renovating their home and had enough room for us and our remaining belongings. There was even room for Garry to set up an office.
Garry: We stayed with our friends and their young children for four months until I secured a job with the Grace to You media ministries in Southern California (just north of Los Angeles).
Elizabeth: I had never been one of those who craved to live in California. It held no appeal. And I had never heard a Grace to You broadcast, so I didn't know John MacArthur, the pastor who is its main teacher. Garry had brought a new book by him home, which I read to see what kind of theology he held--I quickly saw that his views were very solid. My parents had done their best to teach my sister and me to be Bereans.
Garry: I worked as a publications editor with Grace to You from 1994-2013, at which time they gave me the opportunity to retire and join in with a church plant a good friend from Grace to You had been invited to lead in the Cincinnati area (we actually moved to a suburb of Cincinnati--Florence, Kentucky, right across the Ohio River).
Elizabeth: And so, after close to 19 years in California, we ended up moving back to the greater Midwest (July 2013) and being closer to family and some friends. It was a blessing that we did. Garry's dad had passed away while we lived in California, and it was a challenge to get to Iowa before he died, and to spend some time with Garry's mom and other family members before returning to California. Not much more than a year after we moved to Kentucky Garry's mom became ill and passed away in just months. We are glad for the time we got to spend with her and that we could be closer by to help in her final weeks. (It has also been a blessing to be able to visit Elizabeth's mom and sister more often in South Dakota and assist them in some important matters.)
After thinking Illinois would be our "forever" home, and then California, I no longer think of Kentucky as our "forever" home, either. Home is wherever it pleases God to put us.
Pertinent Scripture passages for us are the following:
James 4:13-15: Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and make a profit"--yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live, and also do this or that." (ESV)
Psalm 46:1-3: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling, Selah. (ESV)
We expected to always work for the same companies, live in the same area, attend the same church--at least until we retired.
But God had other plans.
Garry: At that time I had just returned to commuting on the train from the western suburbs where we lived to downtown Chicago to my relocated office. Elizabeth caught a ride with co-workers to her office in the suburbs.
Elizabeth: The day before our fourth wedding anniversary (March 24, 1993) Garry came home and asked me to sit down. So I did.
Garry: That day my boss told me that a major project I had been involved in had been cancelled and that I would be laid off before the end of the year.
Elizabeth: That turn of events was a real surprise. I had assumptions regarding Garry's job which had just proved false. And we could not make it for long on just my income. The second shock that year was the unexpected death of my dad less than a month after Garry cleared out his desk at his office.
Garry: Providentially my company paid me four months of severance money, beginning in September 1993. And they also had me do several free-lance projects for them. All that helped bridge the income gap for us.
Elizabeth: The day before our fifth wedding anniversary (March 24, 1994) we moved in with a family from the church we were attending. They had recently finished renovating their home and had enough room for us and our remaining belongings. There was even room for Garry to set up an office.
Garry: We stayed with our friends and their young children for four months until I secured a job with the Grace to You media ministries in Southern California (just north of Los Angeles).
Elizabeth: I had never been one of those who craved to live in California. It held no appeal. And I had never heard a Grace to You broadcast, so I didn't know John MacArthur, the pastor who is its main teacher. Garry had brought a new book by him home, which I read to see what kind of theology he held--I quickly saw that his views were very solid. My parents had done their best to teach my sister and me to be Bereans.
Garry: I worked as a publications editor with Grace to You from 1994-2013, at which time they gave me the opportunity to retire and join in with a church plant a good friend from Grace to You had been invited to lead in the Cincinnati area (we actually moved to a suburb of Cincinnati--Florence, Kentucky, right across the Ohio River).
Elizabeth: And so, after close to 19 years in California, we ended up moving back to the greater Midwest (July 2013) and being closer to family and some friends. It was a blessing that we did. Garry's dad had passed away while we lived in California, and it was a challenge to get to Iowa before he died, and to spend some time with Garry's mom and other family members before returning to California. Not much more than a year after we moved to Kentucky Garry's mom became ill and passed away in just months. We are glad for the time we got to spend with her and that we could be closer by to help in her final weeks. (It has also been a blessing to be able to visit Elizabeth's mom and sister more often in South Dakota and assist them in some important matters.)
After thinking Illinois would be our "forever" home, and then California, I no longer think of Kentucky as our "forever" home, either. Home is wherever it pleases God to put us.
Pertinent Scripture passages for us are the following:
James 4:13-15: Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and make a profit"--yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live, and also do this or that." (ESV)
Psalm 46:1-3: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling, Selah. (ESV)
posted by Ebeth | 9:56 AM
1 Comments:
"Home is wherever it pleases God to put us." Wow. So true but so hard to understand sometimes.
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